Something New at ISA EXPO 2007

Solution providers from around the world will come together in Houston, TX, Oct. 2-4 for ISA EXPO, considered to be North America’s largest automation and control exhibition. Exhibitors will unveil their latest products and services at the Reliant Center, showcasing a wealth of automation and control solutions. The expo will also feature five focused product and technology pavilions including the new Bus Station. These are described below.

1. The Bus Station is a collaborative endeavor designed to deliver the latest information on industrial bus and field communications. Presentations and product offerings for the various networking and communication protocols will be centralized in this venue, where attendees can gather both technical education and product information.

3. The Software Solutions Pavilion has been put together as a focal point for attendees looking for software products to help their operations run with security, reliability, and efficiency. Technologies included are software solutions for interoperability, shop floor data collection, automation, process control, process improvement, and data acquisition.

4. The Environmental Pavilion will offer products and solutions to help your company comply with environmental regulations. Its goal is to help attendees become better equipped to meet factory guidelines and protect natural surroundings.

5. The Sensors Fair will showcase sensors, transducers, detectors, and related technologies for both process and discrete industrial automation applications. Highlighted will be sensors and sensor-based systems to improve the production, cost, quality, and delivery of your products.

In addition, ISA EXPO is organized around six core automation and control themes with technical sessions and “open to all” events such as topical forums and standards development meetings. These six exchanges are described below.

1. ISA is bringing the strength of its standards-making machine to bear in the Security Exchange. Protecting manufacturing automation and control systems computer environments is critical, and ISA-99 Manufacturing and Control Systems Security and ISA-100 Wireless Systems for Automation are the heartbeat of this endeavor. Attendees will benefit from listening to, mingling with, or learning from world-renowned cyber security and automation systems experts. The regulatory environment, OMAC and Microsoft related industrial applications, OPC, and security risk analysis are also scheduled topics for the Security Exchange.

4. Fire and gas explosions are the headline grabbers in the automation world, but attendees can avoid such extremes through education at the Safety Exchange, which includes information on SIS (safety-instrumented system) selection, hazardous locations, alarms, SIL (safety integrity level) selection, and boiler controls safety. There will be discussions about electrical equipment for hazardous locations, instrument signals and alarms, and ISA-84 standards for use in process safety management of highly hazardous chemicals.

5. The Environmental & Quality Control Exchange is a technology smorgasbord encompassing aspects of power, chemical and substance analysis, pharmaceutical, and water with the overriding theme and focus being quality of life. Fossil power and nuclear power plant standards will be discussed as well as the standards for safe and environmentally friendly power applications.

6. The Enterprise Integration Exchange will educate attendees in control system integration and in using, appraising, and hiring a control system integrator. Asset management has come out of maintenance management to leverage preventive and predictive maintenance, equipment recording and tracking, replacement parts inventory, and maintenance labor scheduling with the goal of optimizing asset use. Attendees can learn about ISA-95 Enterprise-Control System Integration and ISA-88 Batch Control.